Harvard professor wins Nobel prize for anemia treatment discovery

A 2019 Nobel prize winner, William G. Kaelin, started out looking at a condition that led to kidney cancer, but, instead, discovered a way to treat anemia.

“I’m a cancer biologist and a cancer physician, but the first truly unique thing coming out of my lab was for anemia,” Kaelin said at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston during a press conference, according to a Harvard University-issued press release.

Kaelin's work looked at two molecules, called VHL and HIF, with VHL being the main focus, the press release states. He and Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe of the Francis Crick Institute in London simultaneously discovered the link between reactions and oxygen levels regarding the molecules.

Kaelin said his wife, who died of a brain tumor in 2015, was an inspiration to him.

“I like to think she’s smiling and nodding, ‘I told you, I told you this was going to happen!’” Kaelin said at the conference, according to the release.

Kaelin is a professor at Harvard Medical School.